Infobox
- Founded in 1949 by the US congress
- Czechoslovak journalist Ferdinand Peroutka was its first head
- On July, 4 1950, the first broadcasting was conducted from transmitters on cars along Czechoslovakia´s border
- In 1952, Radio Free Europe started broadcasting to Romania, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria
- In November 1952, a building complex with 22 studios was opened in Munich, Germany
- The Czech section started broadcasting from Munich under the leadership of Pavel Tigrid, Czech author and journalist and future Culture Minister after 1989, RFE´s HQs remained in New York (lead by F. Peroutka)
- In 1953, Radio Liberty started broadcasting to the Soviet Union
Prague - The new headquarters of Radio Free Europe that broadcasts from Prague to countries all over the world looks like a modern fort, and what more, in the fashion of a medieval stronghold, the new Radio Free Europe building is to be strongly fortified against any kind of attack. Its security measures are secret even to the architects.
The US-sponsored broadcaster has had its headquarters in the center of Prague in the former building of the Comunists´ Federal Assembly situated on the top of the Wenceslaus Square for years.
After 9/11, it was decided that the Radio needed a safer place than the building downtown Prague by one of the busiest Prague expressways and by the National Museum.
The new building will be finished shortly. Even though heavy machines are still driving around the new five-storey building, the logo and the name of the station has been already installed on the building´s walls.
Finished in fall 2008
"We are planning to start moving to the building in the fall and we should be finished by the beginning of 2009," says Anna Šišková from the RFE/RL press department.
The broadcaster will move in several phases so that the broadcasting can continue without disruptions with the complete broadcasting from the new building at the end of the fall.
The construction is taking place according to the schedule. The investor Orco Property Group planned to hand the building over in the last quarter of 2008 and it looks they will make it. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty signed the lease for 15 years, with the possibility to extend the lease by ten years.
Security not an issue
In the new building, the security concerns should no longer be an issue.
23,000 quadrate meters of the new headquarter will include many security measures. No wonder - RFE/RL broadcasts in such countries as Iran or Afghanistan. Neither the investor nor the radio itself wanted to comment on the security measurements. Even the Czech architects who projected the building were not informed about all the details.
Interestingly, the building is close to other two places that might be a possible terrorist target as well - the Jewish cemetery and a social care house for Jewish seniors.
The construction with many extra security requirements has proceeded without any major complications so far. "The construction has been following the top standards of the EU, US and the Czech Republic.
We have always chosen and implemented the strictest out of the three," said Petra Zdeňková, PR manager of Orco Property Group. The costs of the construction and the moving are expected to reach CZK 315 million.
Museum instead of radio
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty broadcasts in 28 languages. It has been operating in Prague since July 1994. In 2002, the US congress stopped the broadcasting in the Czech language as no longer needed.
The former building of the Federal Assembly will be used by the neighboring National Museum after the broadcaster leaves it at the beginning of next year.
The National Museum plans to use it for its antique and non-European collections, being among the most superb collections in Europe, which the public has not had many chances to enjoy yet.
